Paul and Barnabas proceeded north about 100 miles to Antioch of Pisidia. The road took them from sea level to 3,600 feet elevation through bandit infested country.540They arrived on a lake-filled plateau. Paul later wrote to the Galatians that he had preached the gospel to them at first because of a weakness of the flesh (Gal. 4:13). This seems to indicate that Paul was not in good health when he ministered in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.541Antioch of Pisidia was a Roman colony, as were Lystra, Troas, Philippi, and Corinth. Roman colonies stood at strategic places in the empire along frequently travelled roads. As such Antioch would have been a good place to plant a church. The Via Sebaste, the Roman road that ran from Ephesus to the Euphrates River, passed through this Antioch.542
"Antioch was the most important city of southern Galatia and included within its population a rich amalgam of Greek, Roman, Oriental, and Phrygian traditions. Acts tells us that it also had a sizeable Jewish population."543
"In bringing the gospel to Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas were planting Christianity in the communication nerve center and heart of Asia Minor."544
People referred to this town as Pisidian Antioch (Antioch of Pisidia) because it was close to the geographical region of Pisidia, though its site was in the geographical region of Phrygia. They called it Antioch of Pisidia to distinguish it from another Antioch in Phrygia.
"It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator about 281 B.C. as one of the sixteen cities he named in honor of either his father or his son, both of whom bore the name Antiochus."545
It was in the Roman province of Galatia and was the chief military and political center in the southern part of the Galatian province.546
Paul and Barnabas attended the Sabbath service in a local synagogue.
"In the Hellenistic and Roman periods Asia Minor had a substantial Jewish population. . . .
"The massive influx of a Jewish population into Asia Minor took place at the end of the third century BC, when Antiochus III settled two thousand Jewish families from Mesopotamia and Babylonia in Lydia and Phrygia, in order to maintain the security of his hold over this region."547
Normally the synagogue service began with the Shema ("Hear, O Israel, . . .") and the Shemoneh Esreh (a liturgy of benedictions, blessings, and prayers). Then leaders would read two passages from the Old Testament aloud, one from the Mosaic Law and a related section from the Prophets section of the Hebrew Bible. Then some competent person whom the synagogue rulers designated would give an address. The service would conclude with a benediction. On this occasion the synagogue leaders, who were local Jewish laymen, invited Paul and Barnabas to give an address if they had some encouraging word to share.
Paul initiated his typical pattern of ministry in Antioch of Pisidia. In every town with a sizable Jewish population that he visited, except Athens, the apostle first preached in the synagogue to Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. When the Jews refused to listen further, he then went to Gentiles directly with the gospel. Evidently Paul went to the synagogues first because his audience there had a theological background that made it easier for them to understand and believe the gospel.
"There was, of course, a practical matter involved. If they had begun evangelizing among gentiles first, the synagogue would have been closed to them."548
Luke recorded three of Paul's evangelistic messages to unbelievers: here in Pisidian Antioch, in Lystra (14:15-17), and in Athens (17:22-31). This is the longest of the three, though Luke quite certainly condensed all of them.549This sermon is very similar to Peter's sermon in 2:14-40 and Stephen's in 7:2-53.550It contains three parts marked off by three occurrences of direct address: preparation for the coming of Messiah (vv. 16-25), the rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Messiah (vv. 26-37), and the application and appeal (vv. 38-41).551
"The variety in these missionary sermons and the speeches of Christians on trial before Jewish and Roman bodies is no doubt meant to illustrate the different ways in which the gospel was presented to different groups of people, Jews and Greeks, cultured and uncultured, and it is hard to resist the impression that the sermons are presented as models for Luke's readers to use in their own evangelism."552
Luke probably recorded this address to help us see how Paul preached to people who knew the Hebrew Scriptures.553
"Speeches in Acts are differentiated less with reference to the speakers than with reference to the audience."554
13:16 Paul stood up and motioned with his hand, both gestures typical of synagogue exhortations. He addressed his Jewish hearers as "Men of Israel,"and he called the Gentile God-fearers who were present "you who fear God."
13:17-22 Paul first reviewed God's preparation for Israel's redemption from Abraham through David (cf. 7:2-50; Matt. 1:2-17). He highlighted five important points that the Jews often stressed in their confessions. God was the God of the Israelites (v. 17). God chose the patriarchs (v. 17). God created the Israelite nation, redeemed His people out of Egypt, and patiently led them through the wilderness (vv. 17-18). He then gave them Canaan as an inheritance (v. 19). The "about"450 years mentioned (v. 19) probably refer to Israel's 400 years in Egypt, the 40 years in the wilderness, and the 10 years of conquest and settlement in the Promised Land (1845--1395 B.C.; cf. 7:6).555Finally God gave the Israelites faithful King David after a succession of lesser leaders (vv. 20-22). It was particularly David's heart for God resulting in his carrying out God's will that Paul stressed (v. 22). These qualities marked David's successor, Jesus Christ, too.
13:23 Paul then announced that the promised Messiah had come and that He was Jesus. The promise in view seems to be the one in Isaiah 11:1-16, which speaks of Messiah coming from David's descendants.
13:24-25 Most of the Jews of the dispersion knew of John the Baptist's ministry. Often the early Christian preachers began the message of Jesus with John the Baptist, who announced and prepared for His coming (cf. Mark 1:2-8). John clarified that he was not the Messiah but was His forerunner (Luke 3:15-18).
"It may be that followers of John the Baptist, believing him to have been the Messiah, and constituting a sect which had spread outwards from Palestine, presented more of a problem to Christian missionaries about this time than the NT evidence would suggest; a hint of this is given in 19:3-5. If such were the case, it would account for Paul's strong emphasis here on John's role as merely the herald of the Messiah."556
13:26 Before proceeding to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, Paul paused to address his hearers by groups again (cf. v. 16) and to personalize the gospel message to them. He noted that the gospel is for both Jews and Gentiles.
13:27-31 He then proceeded to narrate the rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-5). He pointed out that all these experiences were fulfillments of Old Testament predictions, which most of the Jews living in Jerusalem did not recognize at the time (vv. 27, 29). He also noted Jesus' innocence of the charges brought against Him (v. 28). Paul stressed Jesus' resurrection particularly as God's vindication of Him (v. 30), and he highlighted the apostles' personal witness of His resurrection (v. 31; cf. 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39-41). God had vindicated and prepared Him to reign by raising Him from the dead.557His point was that David's promised heir, the Messiah, had come (cf. v. 33).
13:32-37 He supported the fulfillment of this promise by quoting three Old Testament Messianic passages: Psalm 2:7 (v. 33), Isaiah 55:3 (v. 34), and Psalm 16:10 (v. 35; cf. 2:27). These Old Testament texts all found fulfillment in the raising up of Jesus. However, Paul used "raised up"in two different senses in this speech. In verses 33 and 37 he spoke of God raising up Jesus as the promised Messiah. Psalm 2:7 refers to God similarly raising up David as Israel's king. Second, Paul spoke in verses 30 and 34 of God raising up Jesus from the dead. Jesus was always the Son of God ontologically, but God declared Him to be His Son when He raised Him from the dead and made Him the Davidic ruler (Ps. 2:7). Similarly God had declared David His son when He made David ruler over Israel (cf. 2 Sam. 7:10-14).558
"Paul did not say Jesus is now ruling over the kingdom of David, but only that the Son of David is now in a position to rule forever when He returns."559
Since Jesus rose from the dead, God can give people the blessings that He promised would come through David (v. 34; Isa. 55:3; cf. 2:25-32). The blessings mentioned in this Old Testament passage are those of the New Covenant. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead and did not undergo decay proves that He is the Holy One of whom David spoke in Psalm 16:10 (v. 35).
Paul's argument was that God had raised up David and had promised a Savior from his posterity. God had fulfilled that promise by raising up Jesus as the Messiah, whom He identified as His Son by raising Him from the dead.560
13:38-39 Paul ended his exhortation (v. 15) with an application and appeal to his readers. He now addressed his two types of hearers collectively as "men brethren"(v. 38, Gr. andres adelphoi). When it comes to responding to the gospel, all people, Jews and Gentiles, are on the same level. Through Jesus, Paul asserted, everyone who believes (the only condition) has forgiveness of sins (cf. 2:38; 10:43) and justification (God's judicial declaration of righteousness, cf. Deut. 25:1). Justification could not come through the Mosaic Law, he reminded his hearers.561
"What we have in the application of Paul's message (despite its cumbersome expression in its précis form) are his distinctive themes of forgiveness of sins,' justification,' and faith,' which resound in this first address ascribed to him in Acts just as they do throughout his extant letters."562
Paul later developed the truth of justification and forgiveness apart from the Mosaic Law in his epistle to the Galatians. He probably wrote Galatians to the same people he spoke to here shortly after he completed this first missionary journey. Later he set forth these themes more fully in his epistle to the Romans.
13:40-41 Paul concluded by applying Habakkuk's warning to all who reject the good news about Jesus Christ. God's working in their day (i.e., providing the Messiah) was something they could not afford to disbelieve and scoff at or they would perish.
"Habakkuk 1:5, which Paul quoted here, refers to an invasion of Judah by a Gentile nation that would be used as God's disciplinary instrument to punish Judah for her disobedience. Paul evidently saw his generation in Israel under a similar disciplinary judgment. Paul's message, like Peter's [on the day of Pentecost] was delivered to a generation in Israel under the judgment Christ had predicted [in Luke 21:24, i.e., the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.]."563
In a larger sense, of course, unbelieving scoffers perish eternally for rejecting the gospel.
"Parallel with the positive theme of the preparation for the coming of the Christ through Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and John the Baptist, he [Paul] has interwoven an admonitory reminder of those who have failed to recognize the divine plan and purpose--the Canaanites, Saul, the Jerusalem Jews and Pilate. Now he presents the Dispersion Jews with a similar challenge to accept or refuse the Gospel message."564
13:42-43 Paul's message created great interest in the hearts of many people who listened to him. He and Barnabas continued clarifying the gospel for their inquirers during the following week.565Here "the grace of God"refers to the sphere of life into which one enters by believing in Jesus Christ.
13:44-45 One reason for the unsaved Jews' antagonism was the large crowd that Paul's message attracted. Jealousy, rather than the Holy Spirit, filled and controlled these unbelieving Jews and again led to persecution (cf. 5:17).
"Knowing (as we unfortunately do) how pious Christian pew-holders can manifest quite un-Christian indignation when they arrive at church on a Sunday morning to find their places occupied by rank outsiders who have come to hear a popular visiting preacher, we can readily appreciate the annoyance of the Jewish community at finding their synagogue practically taken over by a Gentile congregation on this occasion."566
"The majority of the Jews, including undoubtedly the leaders of the Jewish community, were apparently unwilling to countenance a salvation as open to Gentiles as it was to Jews."567
Another reason for the Jews' hostile reaction was the content of Paul's message. Like other Jews elsewhere most of the Jews in Antioch did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They were "blaspheming"by saying that He was not.
13:46 As the apostles in Jerusalem had done, Paul and Barnabas responded to the opposition with bold words (cf. 4:29). It was necessary for the gospel to go to the Jews before the Gentiles not only because Jewish acceptance of Jesus is a prerequisite to the messianic kingdom (cf. 3:26). It was also necessary because Jesus was the Messiah whom God had promised to deliver the Jews. The gospel was good news to the Jews in a larger sense than it was to the Gentiles. Paul consistently preached the gospel to the Jews first in the towns he visited (cf. 13:50-51; 14:2-6; 17:5, 13-15; 18:6; 19:8-9; 28:23-28; Rom. 1:16). The Jews' rejection of the gospel led him to offer it next to the Gentiles.
"Now for the first time Dispersion Jews follow the example of their Jerusalem counterparts in rejecting Christ, and for the first time Paul publicly announces his intention of turning his back on them and concentrating on the purely Gentile mission [cf. 18:5-6; 28:25-28]."568
By rejecting Jesus these Jews were really, though not consciously, judging themselves unworthy of salvation. Usually most of the Jews who heard Paul's preaching rejected it and only a few believed, but many Gentiles accepted the gospel.
13:47 Paul quoted the Isaiah commission because he was addressing Jews. Isaiah explained their duty. He and Barnabas were only carrying out God's will. The servant of the Lord is the person addressed in Isaiah 49:6. Jesus Christ, the perfect Servant of the Lord, was the ultimate light to the Gentiles who would bring salvation to the end of the earth (cf. Luke 2:28-32). As Israel and Christ had been lights to the Gentiles (Gen. 49:3; Luke 2:29-32), so now were Paul and Barnabas (cf. Matt. 5:14-16). Not only had the Jews received a commission to reach out to the Gentiles with blessing (Exod. 19:5-6; Isa. 49:6), but so had Jesus' disciples (Matt. 28:19-20).
13:48-49 Luke again stressed that the results of the preaching of the gospel were due to God's work (1:1-2). The Christian evangelists were only harvesting the wheat that God had already prepared. Verse 48 is a strong statement of predestination: those whom God had previously appointed to eternal life believed the gospel (cf. Eph. 1:4, 11).
"Once again the human responsibility of believing is shown to coincide exactly with what God in his sovereignty had planned."569
Good news spreads fast, and the good news of the gospel spread through that entire region.
"This spreading of the word, along with the apostles' own outreach to the cities named in chapters 13 and 14, probably led to the agitation of the so-called Judaizers that resulted in the problem Paul dealt with in Galatians."570
13:50 The Jews secured Paul and Barnabas' explusion from their district through influential local residents who brought persecution on the missionaries. Some of these people were devout women, evidently God-fearers whom the unbelieving Jews turned against Paul and Barnabas (cf. 10:2).
". . . synagogue worship attracted many Gentile women as adherents of Judaism; in Asia Minor wealthy matrons exercised much more influence than was the case in most other parts of the Empire."571
13:51 Shaking the dust off one's feet was a graphic way that Jews illustrated separation from unbelievers (cf. Matt. 10:14; Luke 9:5; 10:11). Iconium (modern Konia) stood about 85 miles to the southeast of Antioch, also in Phrygian Galatia. Paul and Barnabas undoubtedly travelled the southeast branch of the Via Sebaste to arrive there.572
13:52 The identity of the "disciples"in verse 52 is not clear. They could be Paul and Barnabas or the new converts in Antioch. I tend to think the word refers to both groups. Fullness of joy and fullness of the Holy Spirit marked these disciples.
It is interesting that two references to joy (vv. 48, 52) bracket the one mention of persecution in this passage (v. 50) suggesting that the missionaries' joy overrode the discomforts of persecution (cf. 16:24-25).
